A review of the development of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Due to the need for clean energy, the development of an efficient fuel cell technology for electricity generation has received considerable attention. Much of the current research efforts have investigated the materials for and process development of fuel cells, including the optimization and simplification of the fuel cell components, and the modeling of the fuel cell systems to reduce their cost and improve their performance, durability and reliability to enable them to compete with the conventional combustion engine. A high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) is an interesting alternative to conventional PEMFCs as it is able to mitigate CO poisoning and water management problems. Although the HT-PEMFC has many attractive features, it also possesses many limitations and presents several challenges to its widespread commercialization. In this review, the trends of HT-PEMFC research and development with respect to electrochemistry, membrane, modeling, fuel options, and system design were presented.